


Supercut

by buoyantsaturn



Series: Prompts [7]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Headcanon prompt, Instagram, M/M, this was difficult to do at first bc i dont have an insta and dont know how it works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 05:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14585994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: supercut: a compilation of a large number of short video clipsorsupercut: a story told in instagram postsit's a fic based on this headcanon list!!





	Supercut

**Author's Note:**

> title is supercut by lorde as all of these titles have been!! this was fun to write and i hope you like it!!

_ [TheGhostKing] _

_ [2387 posts. 89024 followers. 231 following.] _

_ [Nico di Angelo. 20. LA.] _

 

Nico always had his notifications turned off - with as many followers as he had, it was understandable, since the notifications came in like a flood at all hours of the day. That didn’t mean that he completely ignored them, of course, because he liked reading some of the comments that people would leave him and - since he’d started getting paid by sponsors for his posts (which he still didn’t fully understand, but he wasn’t going to complain) - he liked seeing which of his posts got more likes and comments than others. 

For the most part, the pictures with Nico’s face in them got the most reaction. A lot of the time, the comments that people would leave on those pictures made Nico a little bit uncomfortable - they were like catcalls, only over the internet - but Nico figured he could ignore it and leave commenting enabled because the good comments he got outweighed the bad.

There was one new follower that Nico had recently gotten, whose name kept popping up on Nico’s notifications as he scrolled through them. He liked a lot of Nico’s pictures, though when Nico went through and checked, the only ones that he’d liked had Nico’s face in them - a lot of people did that, sure, but those people also tended to leave the creepiest comments. This follower - sunshine.solace - had only left Nico one comment on his most recent picture of himself which said only a single word:  _ beautiful. _

Out of boredom, Nico decided to check out sunshine.solace’s account. He had about two hundred followers, much less than Nico, and his pictures were all much brighter and had happier vibes than any of Nico’s. His picture was of a pretty blond boy with golden hair and a million freckles, such a wide smile that his eyes were nearly shut - Nico guessed that the picture was taken in the middle of a laugh - and he had three stripes painted on his cheeks in the color of the bi-pride flag. His bio was simple:  _ will. 21. bi. _

Every picture that Will had ever posted was stunning. Perfect lens flares, just the right angles, a sort of brightness that was calming rather than blinding. The subject of most of the pictures - the same beautiful blond from the profile picture - was the best part of it all. Nico could stare at those pictures all day if he could.

He liked one of them. Without thinking, he opened up his DMs and sent a message to Will:  _ hey sunshine. _ His brain didn’t catch up until the message had already been sent, and there was no getting it back.

Nico shut off the screen and shoved the phone under his pillow, as if that would prevent any response from coming through. His phone buzzed, and Nico hoped it was a text or an email or  _ anything but a response _ and without checking it, he grabbed the phone and ran out of his room and into the living room where Hazel was sitting on the couch.

He practically dove onto the couch, shoving the phone into Hazel’s hand before hugging a pillow close to his chest. 

“What’s happening right now?” Hazel asked, muting the TV before turning so that her brother had her full attention.

“You know how you and Jason always say that I should  _ just go for it and talk to somebody? _ You know, like, date-wise?” Nico said, staring at his phone like he was afraid of it.

“Yes, I believe I recall saying something like that,” Hazel said.

“I messaged somebody on Instagram,” he said. “I don’t know why, I have  _ no idea _ what I was thinking, but I think he responded and I’m too afraid to look at it.”

“You’re freaking out and you don’t even know  _ if _ he answered?” Hazel asked. She rolled her eyes and unlocked her brother’s phone. “Sunshine.solace, is that him?”

“Yeah,” Nico croaked, and held the pillow closer. 

“He said, _ hey ghost king, to what do I owe this pleasure?” _ Hazel started to hand the phone back before he stopped herself and said, “Do you need me to answer this, too? Or are you going to be able to hold a conversation with him?”

“How could he answer so calmly?” Nico said. “How do people not freak out over stuff like this?”

“Maybe he is freaking out, but he knows how to sound super calm over text,” Hazel offered, and started typing something. “Or maybe he also made his sister text for him.”

“Wait, Hazel, what are you sending?” Nico demanded, and crawled forward to grab for his phone, but Hazel held it out of his reach. “Hazel,  _ please.” _

“There, sent.” She handed the phone over, and Nico felt like he was going to throw up from the nerves. “You’re welcome. I’m sure you can handle yourself from here.”

“What did you do?” Nico said, and had to read over the message about three times before he finally started comprehending the words.  _ The pleasure is all mine, since I get to talk to someone with such a pretty face. _ “Hazel, what the hell is this!”

“It’s flirting, you should try it sometime.”

“But I don’t talk like this! And now he’s not responding, look at what you did!”

Just then, his phone buzzed in his hand, three times in quick succession.

_ sunshine.solace: oh _

_ sunshine.solace: oh wow _

_ sunshine.solace: um _

“Hazel, I think you scared him,” Nico said, but his phone buzzed again.

_ sunshine.solace: sorry, its not often that someone as beautiful as you are calls me pretty _

“Oh, shit,” Nico breathed. He whispered, “Hazel, he said I’m beautiful,” as if speaking up might scare the other boy away. 

“Oh, good, you’re flirting,” Hazel said, her attention turned back to the TV. “Find out if he lives anywhere near here and maybe ask him out. Good luck.”

“You’re not going to help me?” Nico asked.

“Gotta learn how to do stuff for yourself eventually,” Hazel answered. “Now you better hurry up and reply before he thinks you’re not interested anymore.”

“Shit!”

 

* * *

 

_ [2 minutes ago] _

_ [Image: a cup of coffee with a heart drawn from milk. Behind it, the coffeeshop is a distant blur.] _

_ [ _ **_sunshine.solace_ ** _ i have a date with the prettiest boy i’ve ever seen and i think this is the barista’s way of wishing me luck] _

 

Will had gotten to the coffeeshop much earlier than he should have - it wasn’t his fault (it absolutely was), he just wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be late. So he sat in his seat near the window for about twenty minutes, not wanting to ruin the heart in his coffee and instead letting it get cold while he waited for his date to arrive. 

He was expecting to get stood up, to be quite honest. He hardly believed that he’d actually been asked on a date by  _ Nico di Angelo, _ so until he saw Nico walking past the window and through the door of the coffeeshop, he still didn’t think it was true. Nico ordered his coffee, waited by the counter until it was ready, and made his way over to Will once he recognized him.

He sat down across from Will.  _ Nico di Angelo _ was sitting down across from him.

Nico started fidgeting uncomfortably under Will’s stare, so he looked down at his coffee once he realized he was being rude. “Um. Hi.”

“Hi. Will, right?” Nico asked, and Will thought he might melt at his lightly accented voice. The corner of Nico’s mouth quirked up as he continued, “Or do you prefer  _ Sunshine?” _

He smiled, resting his chin on his hand as he let his gaze return to the other boy. “Will is fine. Is it Nico, or  _ Your Highness the Ghost King?” _

Nico snorted. “Please. It’s just  _ Your Highness.” _ Nico took a sip of his drink in hopes of bridging a somewhat awkward pause in the conversation. Introductions were over, so what were they supposed to do now?

“I’m sorry if I’m staring,” Will said suddenly, seeming to catch himself in the act again and looking anywhere else. “It’s just...you’re even prettier in person, somehow.”

Nico ducked his head and turned to look out the window, scratching at the back of his neck as he said, “Yeah, well. You’re pretty, too.” When Will didn’t say anything, Nico peeked up to see Will beaming at him, and he felt his heart skip a beat.

“I, um,” Will started, wrapping his hands around his now cold cup of coffee, still smiling as he continued, “I have to be honest with you about something. When I first got that message from you, I got super nervous. That first message that you got from me was actually from my sister, because I was so nervous that my hands were shaking too much to type.”

“Really?” Nico asked.  _ “I _ made you  _ that _ nervous? But I’m… just a guy.”

“A really pretty guy,” Will said. “I only get nervous around the pretty ones.”

Nico ducked his head again, this time trying to hide a blush. He mumbled, “I was nervous, too.”

“Yeah?”

Nico nodded. “Actually, uh, one of the messages you got was also from my sister.”

“You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?” Will asked.

“No, I, uh, I’m not very good at talking to people.” Nico huffed. “Which I’m sure you’ve noticed, by now.”

“I think it’s cute,” Will told him. “You’re a lot different than I expected - good different, of course. I mean, your Instagram is all dark and gloomy, but you don’t seem like that at all. You’re cute, is what I’m trying to say.”

“I’m not cute,” Nico said to the window, but Will just kept smiling at him. Turned out, Will’s smile was contagious, and Nico found himself smiling back in seconds.

 

* * *

 

While they lived on different sides of the same city and they attended different universities, Will and Nico met up on the weekends to study together. With finals so close, it was difficult to find time to make dates when there was so much work to do, so they decided to kill two birds with one stone by studying in a public library nearly halfway between where the two of them lived. (They tried studying in private - either at Nico’s apartment or in Will’s dorm - but there were too many... _ distractions _ in private, and Nico got bored far too easily when all they were doing was reading textbooks.)

Nico still found himself uninterested in his work just as quickly as when he was in his own apartment, but being in public kept him from  _ distracting _ Will as well - most of the time, at least. Sure, he couldn’t hop into Will’s lap and kiss him until he forgot about whatever he was reading, but he could pull out his phone and start snapping pictures of the pages in Will’s textbook until Will shoved him away.

 

_ [just now] _

_ [image: drawing of a skeleton from a medical textbook.] _

_ [ _ **_TheGhostKing_ ** _ god i wish that were me #finalsweek] _

 

Will finished taking notes on the chapter he was reading before pulling his phone out of his pocket and checking his notifications. He raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend when he saw the alert of a new post from Nico, and started laughing when he saw what it was.

“Don’t you have a paper to write?” Will asked as he put his phone away again.

“But that’s so  _ boring,” _ Nico told him. He reached his leg out and ran his foot along Will’s calf as he said, “It’s so much more fun to mess with you.”

Will set his chin on his hand, elbow pressing into the pages of his textbook as he leaned forward. “I’ll tell you what: as soon as finals are over, you can mess with me all you want.”

Nico leaned forward, sliding his laptop to the side so that it was out of his way. “Is that a promise?”

Will held out his other hand: a closed fist with the pinkie sticking out.

“Are you kidding me?” Nico laughed, but linked his pinkie with Will’s.

Will pulled Nico’s hand closer and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “Hurry up and finish your paper, and then we can go get dinner. Sound good?”

 

* * *

 

When Will finished his last final, he walked outside to see Nico waiting in the driver’s seat of a car sitting at the curb. 

“Hey, hot stuff,” Nico called out through the open passenger window when Will walked up. “Need a ride?”

“That depends. Where are you headed?” Will asked, bending over to look through the window.

Nico shot him a grin. “Guess you’ll have to get in and find out.”

Will straightened up and took a step back. “Well, that’s no way to get a guy in your car.”

“Wait! Babe, c’mon, just get in the car,” Nico whined.

Will tugged open the car door and got in, dropping his backpack on the floor by his feet and leaning over to kiss his boyfriend. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Nico said, and settled back down in his seat before starting the car. “How was your test?”

“Fine, I think,” Will answered as he buckled in. “I’m pretty sure I passed, at least.” Nico pulled out onto the road and started driving toward the edge of town - away from either of their homes. “You gonna tell me where we’re going?”

“Nope,” Nico said, popping the  _ p. _

“‘Cause, you see, I was under the impression that as soon as finals were over, we would head back to your place,” Will said slowly, one of his hands sneaking over the center console so that his fingers could tease at Nico’s thigh. “Maybe get takeout, get nice and comfortable--”

“No distracting the driver,” Nico said, stopping Will’s hand with his own and lacing their fingers together.  _ “I _ was thinking that we could go out for dinner before heading back to my place, but we’ve gotta make a stop on the way first.”

“A stop where?”

“You’ll see.”

 

They left the city, driving for nearly thirty minutes out into the country until Nico pulled over on the side of the road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. He turned off the car and went to open the door and get out when he noticed that Will wasn’t moving to do the same.

“You know, usually people don’t kill people in the middle of the day. They tend to wait until the middle of the night, just to make sure nobody sees.”

“I didn’t bring you here to kill you, Solace, now get out of the car.” Nico rolled his eyes and flung open the driver’s door before climbing out of the car. Will followed quickly and as soon as he was standing he understood why Nico had brought him there. About a hundred yards off the road was a field of sunflowers, all taller than Will and thick enough that someone could hide inside the patch, completely unseen.

Will beamed and grabbed Nico’s hand, running toward the field and dragging his boyfriend behind him.

“How did you find this place?” Will asked once they’d reached the flowers.

“Hazel told me about it,” Nico replied. “I thought you might get some nice pictures for your Instagram, or something.”

Will wrapped an arm around Nico’s waist and pulled him in for a kiss before they dove into the flowers together.

 

_ [12 minutes ago] _

_ [image: a figure in all black stands surrounded by sunflowers. The person is holding another sunflower by the stem, hiding their face.] _

_ [ _ **_sunshine.solace_ ** _ i have the best boyfriend in the world] _

 

Nico held the sunflower in one hand and his phone in the other as he reached up to press his lips to Will’s, snapping a picture as he did so. When Will pulled back, he took Nico’s phone to see the picture: the sunflower took up almost half of the screen, concealing their kiss but showing just enough of their faces that Will could see for sure that it was them.

“How do you take such amazing pictures on the first try?” Will asked, resting his forehead against Nico’s. 

“Practice,” Nico told him, and saved the picture to a separate folder on his phone. 

“You’re not gonna post that one?”

“Does that look like it fits my aesthetic, Solace?”

 

* * *

 

Nico woke up with his face pressed into Will’s neck and Will’s arms wrapped around him. He felt one of Will’s arms twitch every so often - the arm that he was using as a pillow - which made Nico think that Will was scrolling through Twitter while he waited for Nico to wake up. 

Nico shifted his head so that he could bite at the base of Will’s neck, letting him know he was awake.

“Ow!” Will said, and flinched back. “Geez, I think you bruised me.”

“Shut up, I barely touched you,” Nico groaned.

“Yeah, but that’s the same spot where you gave me a hickey last night,” Will reminded him.

Nico hummed and pulled back enough that he could see the hickey fully. “Oh yeah, I guess I did. It’s a good look.”

“Uh huh, sure it is,” Will said, and rolled over onto his back. Nico pulled himself closer again and placed his chin on Will’s chest, staring at Will with a rather familiar look on his face - he had two expressions that were awfully similar that Will sometimes had a hard time keeping straight: the spark in his eyes either meant that he was setting up the perfect picture in his head, or he wanted to have sex  _ right now. _

Will thought he might’ve figured out which one of those it was when Nico pushing himself forward and latched his mouth onto Will’s neck once again, sinking his teeth into the skin to make another bruise.

Will tangled a hand in Nico’s hair and tugged in the hope that Nico would let go. “Nico,” Will moaned. “Can’t we at least have breakfast first?”

Nico hummed against Will’s skin and shifted to suck on another portion of skin. He pulled back after a moment, seeming to check over his work before throwing a leg over Will’s waist and sitting back on his hips. Will ran his hands up Nico’s thighs as Nico reached to the side and grabbed his phone, lining up for the perfect picture.

“Woah, hey, are you taking a picture of me?” Will asked, jerking his head up and ruining the shot.

“Yeah, put your head back down,” Nico said. “Tilt your chin up.”

Will settled back down and complied. “Is this for you or for your Instagram?”

“Insta.” When Will turned his head again, Nico said, “Relax, your face isn’t in it.” He was finally able to take the picture he wanted, and rolled off of Will’s lap until they were laying side by side.

Will grabbed Nico’s wrist and pulled him closer until he could see the picture - his shoulder and neck, the line of his jaw at the top of the frame; little red marks blending in with a larger purple bruise, his freckles spotted throughout.

“Oh my god, I’m  _ covered,” _ Will said. “You can’t post that, it’s so embarrassing!”

“What? No way, it’s such a good picture,” Nico argued. “Nobody’s gonna know it’s you so there’s no reason to be embarrassed.”

“Kayla will, and Austin, and Hazel,” Will said. 

“They won’t care. Besides, it’s too good, I’ve gotta do it,” Nico told him, and pulled his phone back to post the image. “If it really bothers you that much, then maybe I can make it up to you somehow.”

Will slipped an arm around Nico’s waist and set his chin on Nico’s shoulder. “I can think of a few ways.”

Nico set his phone off to the side and turned his head to brush the tip of his nose against Will’s. “Oh yeah?”

Will pulled himself closer until he was laying on top of his boyfriend, still nose-to-nose. “Yep. You can’t expect to turn me on like that and not do anything about it.”

Nico wrapped his arms loosely around Will’s shoulders. “I thought you wanted breakfast.”

“Yeah, but you can make me breakfast after.” Nico snorted before laughing outright, and Will blew a raspberry into the side of his neck.

 

_ [25 minutes ago] _

_ [image: freckles and bruises across tan skin] _

_ [ _ **_TheGhostKing_ ** _ more beautiful than all the cosmos] _

 

* * *

 

Will had moved out of the dorms at the end of the semester and into the tiniest, shittiest apartment Nico had ever seen. It had a bathroom just big enough for a toilet, sink, and shower stall - too small for two people; they’d tried - a bedroom that was mostly just a bed and piles of boxes that Will hadn’t bothered to unpack, and a galley kitchen. 

Will insisted that Nico come over for dinner, because Will was  _ certain _ that he could cook whatever recipe he’d found, and wanted Nico to be the first to try it - he knew his boyfriend couldn’t cook for shit, so Nico was skeptical, but he figured that if he was there, he might as well help as much as Will would let him. 

Will seemed to catch on to Nico’s game early on, and sent him away to the bedroom to put on some music. Aside from clothes and other necessities, the only things that Will had unpacked were his record player and a small stack of vinyls. Nico flicked through them for a little while, trying to find something he didn’t  _ completely  _ hate, and finally dropped a record onto the player.

He slipped his phone out of his pocket to take a picture of the player to post on his Instagram before making his way back to the kitchen.

 

_ [just now] _

_ [image: an old record player with a simple black vinyl record, the record sleeve propped up behind the player to display the album] _

_ [ _ **_TheGhostKing_ ** _ he’s lucky i love him bc his music taste is shit] _

 

As soon as Nico stepped into the kitchen, Will grabbed his hand and pulled him in for a dance as he sang along poorly with the music that was playing. Nico started laughing despite his complaints, but when Will spun him, he saw one of the pots smoking on the stove. 

“Will, it’s burning,” Nico told him.

Will brought him in from the spin and dipped him, pressing a kiss to his lips before straightening up again and returning his attention to the dinner.

Nico leaned against his counter, scrolling mindlessly through Twitter, and didn’t see Will check his phone while he was stirring one of the pots. He nearly dropped his phone when he read the caption on Nico’s latest post, and took a second to turn off the burners on the stove before he took a step back.

Nico turned when he realized that Will wasn’t cooking anymore, and frowned at how red Will’s face had become.

“Hey, are you alright?” Nico asked, setting his phone on the counter behind him.

“I was gonna--” Will started, staring down at his feet. “I got this recipe for a nice dinner, and it was gonna be all romantic - well, as romantic as dinner in bed can be, since I don’t have a table or chairs - and then I was gonna tell you, and I wasn’t sure you would say it back, but you actually beat me to it.”

Nico stepped forward and cupped Will’s cheek in his hand. “Babe, what are you talking about?”

Will held out his phone, still with Nico’s latest post on the screen. “You said you love me.”

Nico’s eyes flickered down to the screen before meeting Will’s again. “I did. I do.”

Will smiled. “I love you, too.”

 

* * *

 

It was easy for Nico to convince Will to move out of his tiny apartment when he suggested that they find a place together, someplace fit for two people that was halfway between the colleges they were attending. They would see each other every day and Will wouldn’t have to spend anymore of his time in the terrible college dorms. It might even give Hazel the push she needed to finally ask Frank to move in with her.

But that wasn’t important. What’s important is that Nico and Will were moving in together. They were  _ in love, _ and they were going to  _ live together. _

All of Will’s things were still packed up, and Nico piled as much of his stuff into his car as he could to take it to their new apartment.  _ Their _ apartment.

As soon as all of their belongings had been loaded into the building, Will set up his record player and started playing the same album that Nico had put on when they’d had dinner at Will’s - it still wasn’t Nico’s favorite, but it was growing on him. The living room, though packed full of boxes, was plenty big enough for Will to run in, lift his boyfriend off the ground, and spin them in circles as the music played around them.

Moving was tiring, and even with all the extra adrenaline they both had from the excitement, they ended up passing out not long after dinner. They woke up with the sun - they didn’t have curtains for the windows in their bedroom yet - and found themselves wrapped around each other. Will hadn’t been able to find the box with his pajamas, so he’d fallen asleep in his boxers, but Nico had dug around until he found one of Will’s sweaters - a few sizes too big for him and the brightest shade of yellow he’d ever seen.

 

_ [just now] _

_ [image: Nico laying in the middle of the bed wearing Will’s big yellow sweater, mid-laugh, the sunlight shining in through the windows making him glow] _

_ [ _ **_sunshine.solace_ ** _ god im so in love] _

 

* * *

 

_ [9 months later] _

_ [image: Nico on his tiptoes, pulling on Will’s graduation gown and kissing him, holding up Will’s graduation cap to hide part of their faces.] _

_ [ _ **_TheGhostKing_ ** _ congrats sunshine] _

 

* * *

 

_ [2 years later] _

_ [image: a ring box containing two rings, one slightly larger than the other. The larger of the two made of silver, the smaller made of gold.] _

_ [ _ **_sunshine.solace_ ** _ ive never been happier in my life] _

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!  
> this will most likely be my last update for a little while bc im moving back home on saturday and will hopefully be getting a job back home which means im hoping ill be sorta busy but if i dont have time to write new things that i'll go back into my own personal archive and post old things that ive written


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